Rajasthan Human Rights Commission has imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on a police inspector and Rs 1 lakh on a constable for implicating a 70-year-old man in a false NDPS case and asked the state government to recover the penalty from their salaries. The Commission also asked the government to give within two months a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the senior citizen who was wrongly implicated in the case in Jodhpur in 2012.
Commission’s Chairman Justice G K Vyas also ordered the government not to appoint the erring police inspector as the station house officer of any police station for the next five years. Taking cognisance of the “honest and sincere investigation" done by a senior police officer later, bringing out the truth and giving a clean chit to the elderly man, Justice Vyas also asked the government to facilitate the officer for his “honest investigation".
Justice Vyas gave these directions while disposing of a plea by Phalodi resident Bhakar Ram Bishnoi that he had been set up in a false case of possession and trading of opium. On rights panel order, senior police officials probed the matter afresh and found that Bishnoi was indeed implicated by the then SHO Sitaram of the Jamba police station in Jodhpur in collusion with two constables of his police station — Bhagwanaram and Karnaram — in 2012. The policemen had arrested him showing a recovery of 3 kg of opium from his house and had arrested him after lodging a case against him under NDPS Act.
On the basis of the FIR against Bishnoi, the magistrate had sent him to judicial custody and he had to stay in jail for over five months. Taking a serious note of the matter, Justice Vyas observed, This is a serious matter of human rights violation wherein a 70-year-old man had to remain in jail for five months under a conspiracy hatched by the policemen implicating him in a crime which has a provision of 10-year jail term or capital punishment. The evaluation of the mental agony and damage to his image and reputation in the society caused to the victim due to his imprisonment is not possible, he said. Justice also appreciated the officials for acting on his complaint and initiated a free and fair inquiry and recommended them for reward from the government terming their task as exemplary one to protect the human rights of a senior citizen.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)